How to Balance Your SEO Efforts With User Experience

By Keith Curreri on January 08, 2018

We all know about the importance of SEO, or search engine optimization. You can create a beautiful website and captivating content, but if you’re not showing up on search engines, you’ll fail to reach your target audience. However, build a site with only search engines in mind, and you’ll end up with a product that actual humans don’t enjoy using. You’ve got to walk a fine line between keeping Google, Bing, and other search engines happy, and not taking the human element out of web design. Here are some tips for doing just that:

Keep your goals realistic

If you’re a sporting goods store and you decide that you want to rank well for the keyword “tennis” then you’re going to have a tough time. It turns out that plenty of other places want to rank for that same keyword. You’ve got gyms, tennis clubs, tennis tournaments, plus your direct competitors all clamoring for attention. Because of this, you might end up creating a lot of great content that’s filled with keywords and still not see great search engine results. Instead, focus on a keyword that makes sense for your brand, but can still make an impact. That may be something like “used tennis racquets.”

Make sure your SEO makes sense

You want to incorporate strong keywords into the site, but not at the expense of the actual content. If you’re trying to incorporate bizarre keywords, or are stuffing your keywords into your pages in ways that simply don’t make sense, your visitors will head elsewhere.

Skip the generic images

Boring stock photos are unappealing for your customers, and they don’t do much for your SEO either. Instead, invest in professional photography.

Make sure you’re optimized for all kinds of screens

Your clients and would-be clients are viewing your site on desktops, laptops, smartphones, and tablets. Make sure that no matter where they’re scrolling, your pages look clean and are easy to use. Furthermore, if your site doesn’t have a responsive design, your ability to rank on search engines like Google and Bing suffers.

Need help toeing that fine line between mastering SEO without sacrificing your user experience? I’ve got you covered! E-mail me today at Keith@BuckleUpStudios.com for a free consultation.